Sometime in 2011, I asked Jeremy Hicks for the secret of his success. As the brand director of Audi UK, he had presided over a 40% increase in sales over six years. He was modest enough not to claim personal responsibility for this achievement; it was, he said, simply down to a constant flow of new models, taking Audi into parts of the market where it had never before ventured.
In his current role as managing director of Jaguar Land Rover UK, Hicks must welcome the expansion of the JLR model range with Discovery Sport, Jaguar XE and F-Pace. There are some parallels here, as Audi came from behind in the battle of the premium brands to increase worldwide sales to 1.74 million in 2014 and move ever-closer to leader BMW (1.81 million).